


The Curse of the Divination Post

by Trex_patronus



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Astrology, Divination, First War with Voldemort, Foreshadowing, Gen, Hogwarts Professors, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-First War with Voldemort, Sass, Tessomancy | Reading Tea Leaves (Harry Potter), prefigurement
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:02:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29968158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trex_patronus/pseuds/Trex_patronus
Summary: There’s more than one cursed teaching position at Hogwarts.It’s an entirely different subject, and it follows that it’s an entirely different curse.
Relationships: Andromeda Black Tonks & Molly Weasley, Regulus Black & Evan Rosier
Comments: 6
Kudos: 5





	1. Intro

**Author's Note:**

> This is rather short, and might come off as a bit of a teaser. The following chapters are gonna be longer, though, some more than others.
> 
> Also, the obligatory: I own nothing. Universe belongs to JKR, not me.

There’s more than one cursed teaching position at Hogwarts.

It’s an entirely different subject, and it follows that it’s an entirely different curse. Not a curse that was cast, but a curse that simply came to be when the subject began being taught at Hogwarts.

Day in and day out, teenagers would come into Cadmus Edgecombe’s classroom in the North Tower, settle in for that day’s assignment, and set about making predictions which they would discard at the end of the hour.

Divination would never be accepted by many wizards. It was an easy-O sort of class in most students eyes. But Edgecombe had seen too many things to dismiss it. He was no Seer himself, and he’d only taught one student who he suspected was. One didn’t need to be a Seer to utilize most methods of divination.

In fact, several of his students made startlingly accurate predictions. Most, however, did not realize their own accuracy until it was too late.

Somedays, Cadmus wished he hadn’t overheard so much.

_“...life line’s rather short, y’know...”_

_“...something overwhelming. Suffocating expectations. Sink or swim..”_

_“...my family. They were all- It was horrible…”_

_“...Mars is kinda prominent. That means war, apparently…”_

_“...still say it’s just a blob, but apparently it means betrayal…”_

_“...if it’s some sort of explosion…”_

If his students only knew how right they had been. How close they had come.

But that was the curse of the Divination professor. Not an inability to see things coming, but an inability to stop them.

And so it began. Cadmus Edgecombe sat and watched the headlines roll in. Hearing of his students, who were, for better or worse, out there fighting. He wished that just once one of them had been wrong, all those years ago, in that stuffy classroom in the North Tower.


	2. Astrology

It was becoming clearer and clearer by the day what was approaching. Every morning, the newspapers showed the signs that a war was coming.

A blood war.

Cadmus himself was a muggleborn, something he’d kept under wraps for a while, in fact. Never before, however, had that been out of fear, but he suspected (as did the tea leaves and the planets) that that soon it would be.

This really shouldn’t have been a new revelation. And in some ways it wasn’t. He had been watching Mars. As had his students.

* * *

“None of this makes any sense to me!” Molly Prewett groaned. “Do you get it, Andy?”

Andromeda Black nodded, and pulled Molly’s star chart towards her. “Yeah, I know a thing or two about astronomy.” The Gryffindor laughed at the understatement. “How different could astrology be, really?”

“Different enough,” Molly answered. “I’ve got an E in astronomy, but I can’t make heads or tails of this. Remind me why I thought it was a good idea to take NEWT Divination?”

Andromeda laughed, and handed the star chart back. “Just read it like you’re in astronomy, then.” Her fellow sixth-year wrinkled a brow at her. “No, really,” Andromeda insisted. “Just read it normally, and then find out what the planets mean.”

“Alright, well...that one’s Jupiter...and there’s Mercury...um, Mars is kinda prominent. That means war, apparently,” Molly added, with a glance at her textbook.

The girls exchanged a look, and there was a silence between them for a few moments.

Andromeda cleared her throat. “Astrology is...fairly vague. Timeline wise. There’s no way of knowing when that war would be, really. No point worrying about it.” She didn’t sound very convinced herself.

Molly nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. No point worrying. What about...um, Venus? What does that one mean?”

* * *

Those girls had been right. Cadmus thinks that, even at the time, they’d known the prediction would come true. And sooner rather than later. He remembered the fear on both their faces, the uncomfortable silence. As proud as it made him when his students made accurate predictions, that conversation was one of many exceptions.


	3. Tessomancy

Cadmus tossed down the newspaper on the staff table. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen a student’s name amongst the obituaries, but that didn’t mean it got any easier. His eyes flicked to the headline again, needing to confirm that it was real one more time.

_Black Heir Gone Missing: Presumed Dead_

His immediate thought upon seeing the words had been of the loud, exuberant Gryffindor who had graduated just two years ago. Upon reading the article, he realized just how wrong he was.

Being a muggleborn, Cadmus had never pretended to understand the pureblood families and their traditions, but apparently Sirius Black had been a “blood traitor” and gotten himself disowned.

Meaning that this heir in the headlines was--against all logic--Regulus Black. The boy had graduated only last spring. Had he even seen his NEWT results? Cadmus almost smiled as he remembered the round “O” atop the list he’d been given, next to said student’s name. Regulus was incredibly skilled at divination. Cadmus remembered, proudly, the aptitude the boy had shown in his third year alone.

* * *

“Um, there’s a kind of a...squiggle? Does that mean anything?” Evan Rosier asked. He made quite the picture, with his broad shoulders hunched over the small table as he stared into Regulus Black’s china teacup.

“No, Evan, Unfogging the Future doesn't say anything about ‘kind of squiggles’,” Regulus taunted as he leaned back in his chair.

“Prat. Okay then, why don’t we just call it a...I don’t know, a wave. What does that mean?” Evan asked.

“Wow, my future is in such good hands,” Regulus remarked, lazily flipping through his textbook. He moved his leg in time to dodge a well-aimed kick from Evan. “You’ve really figured it all out for me, haven’t you, Evan. Call it a wave, indeed.” He stopped at the Ws. “Literal or metaphorical?” he asked Evan.

“What?”

Regulus sighed. “How dense are the leaves making up my kind-of-a-squiggle? Oh, I’m sorry, I mean my _wave_.”

Evan squinted. “They’re kinda...medium.”

“Medium?”

“Yeah, medium. Could go either way, y’know? So what’s the book say?”

Regulus frowned as he looked at the page. “Well, metaphorically it means something overwhelming. Suffocating expectations. Sink or swim, if you will.”

Evan winced. “And literally?”

“Literally it means drowning,” Regulus deadpanned.

Evan frowned. “It...it doesn’t look all that dense, now that you mention it,” he said in an attempt to be reassuring.

Regulus laughed. “I’m sure it doesn’t. But I should steer clear of the Great Lake this week all the same, right?”

* * *

Cadmus snatched up the paper again, at the memory. It was hardly specific, as to what had happened to the boy, although he should’ve--ironically enough-- _seen that coming_ from the vague headline.

Perhaps this was even worse than what he was used to with his students. Never knowing if the prediction had come true.

 _Drowning_ , he thought. _Merlin. I suppose they wouldn’t have found a body. That’s reason enough for “Gone Missing”_


End file.
